Quote Originally Posted by Geezer View Post
Threads like this reinforce my belief that however nice many of these things made as airguns by airsoft manfacturers appear, they are not to be trusted. I just hear too many problems.

I guess the business model is you make them really cheap, sell in bulk, and factor in the warranty claims when they break.

Even the traditional Umarex replicas (5/686, CP88, 99, 225, 1911, 92...) have similar problems of questionable design and Zamak construction, although they are marketed as high-end, German quality, full metal etc products. In their slight defence, at least you or your friendly local gun doctor can get spare parts, unlike a lot of the others. My friendly local gun doctor has had to fix a few of mine.

My first CO2 multi-shot replicas ages ago were a Crosman 357 and a Daisy 693 (S&W 59 9mm pistol copy). They were very cheap, mostly plastic, did not have blowback, did not load or function in a realistic manner, and had moulded fake controls. And had horrid triggers, and really poor (Daisy) or average (Cros) sights. If you held them, you could not mistake them for the real deal. But they did not break.

I'm afraid that if a newbie asked me what to buy in this area, I'd tell him/her to buy (a) a really cheap non-blowback BB thing like the Crosman C11 or Umarex TDP, or (b) a Makarov. Or forget it and buy a "proper" traditional air pistol.
This thread only actually has one person who has seen a fault and not with their own gun, the only thread on the UBC has 3 faults mentioned, one of them is the same as in this thread! One of the posts links to a video which shows a pistol used with the incorrect shells in sub zero temperatures.

Again, I question the evidence of a bad product. I'm not denying there are faults but we have all taken back expensive purchases with a fault and not written them off as a bad product. The internet is a perfect media for types who think that personal opinion translates into fact once typed or spoken.

Anyway, some testing. As already mentioned the UK pistols come with shells similar to the Peacemaker that load from the rear. In the video shown above (incidentally shot in very cold conditions) the pistols was chronoed with Front loading old style DW shells. It is 4 degrees here right now, not warm at all but not -10. So, some tests :

RWS Match from the correct shells for this pistol give me an average of 357 FPS
RWS Match from the shells used in the video give me an average of 238 FPS
And just for fun, Gamo lead ball from an original DW BB Shell gives me 249 FPS

So I think we can put the power issue to bed, though it is worth pointing out that the DW pellet shells also add about 100FPS to the old DW pellet firing revolvers (A shame because I have loads of the old pellet shells and they are very nicely made). Worth pointing out as well that I have just shot the pistol a lot and it is great fun to shoot, feels very very solid in the hand and is decently accurate. My opinion, it feels a lot more solid than my Peacemaker does.